Fulch had been out for days. The Master said he didn’t know if he would ever wake up. Lunae wasn’t calm; she was frantic ever since she woke up. The Master used the water from the earth to wake her up. Lunae demanded that the Master teach her how to do it and had been trying to revive Fulch ever since. Lunae was sitting there feeding the earth’s water to Fulch, trying to have him regain consciousness, when the Master came up and put his hand on her shoulder.
“You need to rest, you’ve done all you can for him. We must wait,” The Master said. Lunae started to cry. She didn’t want Fulch to die, she had to admit he was the closest friend she’s ever had, especially since she kept everyone she ever knew at an arm's length.
“I must be doing something wrong. Why won’t you try?” Lunae said, despair in her eyes. The Master felt for her and wanted to help, but he just couldn’t.
“I’ve done all I can for him. I’m sorry, but you need to stop; you are draining your own water,” The Master said. Lunae pushed the Master’s hand off of her and continued again to try to save Fulch. The Master knew he needed to do something; Lunae was slowly killing herself trying to save Fulch. The Master grabbed Fulch’s sword and went up to Lunae, and knocked her unconscious. After that, the Master stood there just staring at Lunae. It had been a long time since he cared for someone the way Lunae did for Fulch. Then he realized he cared that much for her and Fulch, and at that moment, he knew what he had to do. The Master made an altar out of the earth’s water and filled it with the water from his own body. He then chanted an ancient chant to commune with the water. As he placed his hands in the altar, he was transported to the chamber of water. In this chamber, the Master was surrounded by the heart of the water; it cocooned him in its essence. The Master felt as if he was floating. He never thought he’d be surprised at this point in his life. He was entranced but remembered he had a job to do.
“Water, I want to offer my life for Fulch!” The Master yelled out, and the water didn’t answer him.
“I just need to know, will they be okay? They are like children to me!” The Master said. In the black abyss, the water circled around the Master faster and faster.
“You all are my children, but they will be fine. I have plans for both of them. If they survive their next challenges, they will marry,” the water said. This gave peace to the Master.
“Please, before I go teach Lunae all she needs to know,” The Master pleaded.
“If he lets me,” The water said before releasing the Master from the grip of the chamber of water. The Master fell to the ground of the forest, confused and angry.
“What did the water mean?” The Master said, yelling to his feet. The suns were about to set, and the Master knew he had little time before Lunae woke up. He sat there in front of Fulch in a meditative state. He soon grabbed his water and transferred it to Fulch. It was a painful process, but the Master knew how to handle pain. Fulch started to moan and groan. With all this power surging through his veins, he surely would wake up. Lunae woke up, head pounding and anger in her heart. She was about to yell at the Master until she noticed he was doing something that looked excruciating. She looked using the sight and realized he was transferring his water to Fulch.
“Stop! What are you doing? This will surely kill you!” Lunae screamed. She ran up to the Master to try to stop him, but he pushed her back through her water. Even in his weakened state, he was still able to hold Lunae from intervening. Lunae started to cry.
“Please stop!” Lunae said as she saw the last of his water filter into Fulch. As that happened, Fulch shot up screaming. Fulch looked at the Master and grabbed him as he fell to the ground. Lunae was released and ran straight to the Master.
“Why? I’m not worth it,” Fulch yelled, somehow completely aware of the situation. The Master smiled and put his hands on both Fulch’s and Lunae’s faces.
“You are my children, something you should know. There is something wrong with the water,” The Master said with his last breath. Lunae hugged him, and Fulch was stone cold. Lunae grabbed Fulch’s hand, and that’s when the tears started to flow. They sat there for some time just crying. Finally, after no more tears could be shed, they got up.
“Should we bury him?” Lunae asked. Fulch stood there and couldn’t bring himself to talk. Lunae stood there in silence until she couldn’t handle it anymore, and she hit Fulch to get him out of the trance. Fulch looked at her, eyes in the distance.
“Usually we bring the body to the temple and their water gets put into an altar, but since his water isn’t in him anymore, there is nothing to do. Besides, we have no shovels…we must leave him,” Fulch said, and Lunae couldn’t handle hearing those words, and she hit Fulch again.
“Leave him like he’s nothing! How dare you!” Lunae yelled. Fulch came up to her and hugged her, which she was resistant to in the beginning, but slowly accepted it.
“We must keep going, if there is something wrong with the water, we have to figure it out, and also we are hunted in these lands. We have stayed here for too long. We must leave!” Fulch said. Lunae nodded, and she started to cry again. They picked up their packs before leaving. Lunae kissed the Master on his forehead, and Fulch bowed to him. Then they set off. The suns went down, and it was pitch black, but they kept walking. Lunae let Fulch lead, and they walked all night until they found a cave.
“We’ll rest here for now,” Fulch said, and Lunae was happy for a break. They set up a fire and cooked some meat. The silence was so loud that Lunae couldn’t handle it, but she had nothing to say. Fulch seemed far off in thought, and he kept looking at his hands.
“I have the Master’s abilities,” Fulch finally said. Lunae was amazed and curious.
“How do you know this?” Lunae asked. Fulch smiled at her and started to make water knives.
“That’s amazing! What else do you see?” Lunae said. Fulch looked around.
“I can see the water. I have been ever since I woke up. I wonder if this is how the Master always saw. Like I can see you have given up some of your water, I can tell the difference between your water and the Master’s water in me,” Fulch said. Lunae decided to look at his water and realized she couldn’t tell the difference.
“I also have knowledge I’ve never known before, I’m still trying to process it,” Fulch said. Lunae was going to ask many questions until the water decided to speak.
“Run,” the water said. Fulch and Lunae both heard it and quickly grabbed their packs and started to run. It wasn’t long before they heard the howl of the Rhudon’s hound. Their pace quickened. Lunae had no idea how close they were to Erafla, and she really didn’t want to fight. They heard a hound behind them, then they heard a hound in front of them. Soon, they realized they were surrounded. Then they saw them. Lunae eyed the general, and with him were several Porpura. Lunae then called up a wall of water and pushed it towards the Brurock, but before it could get to him, it dissipated, and Lunae knew that it was the Porpuraians doing.
“Fusht! Fulch, what do we do?” Lunae yelled. Fulch, with no experience, called upon the water and pushed it towards the Rhudonians, who didn’t have Porpuraians, and it destroyed them.
“This way!” Fulch exclaimed. They ran through the opening and fled for their lives, but they wouldn’t get very far before the Porpuras started pulling the water out of Lunae. She fell to the ground screaming. She turned and started to pull water back to her and was able to take one of the Porpuraians out. As Lunae was doing this, some started to take Fulch’s water, and he fell to the ground, and Lunae could tell Fulch wasn’t going to make it. He didn’t have any training for this.
“Pull the water towards you!” Lunae yelled to Fulch, and she could see he was trying and thankfully succeeding.
“Take all the water,” The water said, and Lunae looked at Fulch, and they nodded at each other. They both started to pull the water towards them, and screams could be heard from all around. The next thing they knew was that they stood there alone, bodies all around them. They looked at each other and started to laugh. They both had no idea how they survived, but they were grateful. They looked for the Brurock but couldn’t find him, and Lunae swore that there were more Porpura priests.
“We need to get to the Porpura village,” Lunae said. Fulch sighed.
“I doubt we’ll be safer there. In fact, I think we’ll be in more danger there,” Fulch said. Lunae nodded in agreement. They searched the dead for anything they could use and then set off. As they were walking, Fulch was wondering what with the Master’s sacrifice what did it mean.
“Lunae, what do you think this all means? Do you think I am a Master of water?” Fulch said. Lunae contemplated what he was saying, and for the truth, she had no clue.
“I don’t know, we really need an altar. We need to talk to the water,” Lunae said. Fulch seemed to be distracted, and Lunae got annoyed by this.
“Are you even listening to me?” Lunae said, Fulch put up a finger, and was deep in thought.
“We could make an altar using the water of the earth and fill the altar with our water,” Fulch said. Lunae was a little freaked out about how he knew this.
“How do you know this stuff?” Lunae said. Fulch smiled at her.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like the Master left some instructions about what to do. I have some of his memories too. I don’t know, but I feel like I need to get to the temple and sort through the memories for them to make sense of it all,” Fulch said. Lunae soaked in all this information, then she remembered what the Master said.
“Can we trust the water?” Lunae said. Fulch put his hand and cupped his chin.
“I don’t know, but do we really have any other choice?” Fulch said. So they both decided to make an altar. It took some trial and error, but they finally did. Then they both put some of their water in the altar and put their hands in it. The water refreshed them and cleared out the rage. Then it spoke.
“A union has presented itself. There are two masters of water now. The Rhudons and Porpuras have forsaken the water; their time will come. Find the Narutay and kill him. Then, empower the Piskal people,” The water said, then released them, and they both fell back. They both looked at each other, confused and determined. They would kill the leader of the Narutay and then go back to Fulch’s people.